EU’s Approach to Address Root Causes of Migration

“Root cause” is an approach used by policy makers to manage migration. The idea is identifying the main reasons as to why people migrate and using policies and different activities to shape the migration patterns of the country of origin (Thorburn, 1996). Managing migration by root causes approach became popular amongst the European community through the 1990s (Carling & Telleraas, 2016). Basically, root causes of migration are thought as factors that induce and motivate people to migrate. Accordingly, the way to manage these root causes is by the provision of aid and adjustment in the political, economic and social sectors in the country of origin (Aubarell et al., 2009). Politically, these adjustments can be made through the advocating of democracy, promotion of human rights as well as reforms in the justice system. Economically, it could be through improvement of social services, funding of developmental projects and creation of job opportunities (Yildiz, 2016).

The EU has engaged in several projects and programs to address the root causes of migration in all over Africa, specifically in the underdeveloped and developing

provision, and quality education. The EU aid considers the problems caused by the lack of the above factors are what refer to as root causes. Therefore, the idea is that by boosting these sectors in ways such as building infrastructure or vocational training, it will help to curb down the migration flows (European Commission, 2016.)

As part of the EU’s agenda on managing root causes of migration, it established the EU Emergency Trust Fund in order to create greater economy and employment opportunities. Although this fund does not include all African countries, it does however have over 25 partner countries divided into three regions namely, the Sahel and Lake Chad, the horn of Africa, and North Africa. The challenges that are believed to be among the push factors of migration in these regions range from poverty, demographic pressure to weak social and economic infrastructure (European Union Trust Fund, 2019). To achieve its objectives, the fund managed to create 27,602 jobs in the Sahel and Lake Chad region alone (European Commission, 2021).

In addition to that, a total number of 129,620 people were helped to develop income- generating activities and 51,208 people received professional training (European Commission, 2021).

The use of development aid also aims to prevent migration due to political reasons.

Political stability often refers to the existence of good governance, democracy, and rule of law that are also referred as the founding values of the Union according to Article 2 of the Treaty of European Union (TEU). After Rome’s convention of 1975, it has been the EU’s mission to incorporate democracy building in Africa into its development policy. The values and principles and the need to be a force of good, are what motivated the provision of EU development aid for democratization, which will, in turn, bring about political stability. In countries such as Cameroon, the EU gave an estimate of 185billion CFA in development aid in the 2014 to 2020 period (European Commission, 2021). The aid is to help in democratization and good governance in Cameroon. The EU has also created projects in other regions of Africa that have helped to put youths out of the street to minimize conflict and improve local governance. For instance, in Kenya, the EU has focused on high-risk areas such as Lamu, Mombasa, and Western Kenya, the creation of projects has made it possible for idle youth to participate and as a result, this has minimized conflict and contributed to peace building activities in these areas.

To combat the root causes of migration, it is crucial to address the economic reasons as to why people feel the need to migrate. Weak community resilience and inadequate social services are among some of the other push factors for migration.

The EU highlighted this as a root cause of the Africa-EU migration and has so far committed into strengthening and improving the quality of the basic social services in different parts of Africa. In the Horn of Africa region, the EU spent a total amount of 324.4 million euros in 2019 alone, which resulted in 4,323,600 people having improved access to basic services (European Commission, 2021). An example can be drawn from Eastern Sudan where children lack proper health care and most are malnutrition. According to World Food Programme report (WFP, 2021), two million children across Sudan aged 24-59 months suffer from stunted growth EU together with WFP provided protein-rich supplementary as well as training on nutritional habits. Because of this program, over 772,000 people in Sudan received better health care (European Commission, 2021). In sum, in the year 2019, the EU spent about 204.9 million euros in creating and improving basic social services across many African countries (European Commission, 2021).

3.3 Overall Assessment of the European Union’s Development Policy

The EU has economically succeeded to provide long-term consistent financing through the establishment of the European Development Fund that is an off-budget tool financed by the Member States. Through this tool, resources are allocated on a five-yearly basis where reviews allow for readjustments when needed. Furthermore, the flexibility in the system of allocation of these resources gives priority and incentives to the least developing countries. Through its activities in the social field and other development arenas, the fund has contributed greatly to support the fight against poverty to improve the conditions of the population in the least developing countries. The fund has undergone several major performance assessments under the UK Department for International Development’s Multilateral aid (MAR) in 2011, the Center for Global Development’s Quality of Official Development Assistance (QuODA)¹ in 2011, the EC’s Impact Assessment of the EDF also in 2011 and the

1 Is a powerful tool developed originally by CGD and the Brookings Institution to measure which

OECD review in 2012. All reviews came to a positive conclusion and found that the tool is strong and more effective than other EU instruments in terms of contributing to delivering the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). What makes the tool strong is its ability to manage financial resources, monitoring, transparency, and consistent funding.

Politically, EU has continuously stood on its strong grounds and values of promoting democracy. Externally, through EU development aid, the EU has supported over 56 election observation missions and provided aid to support the restoration of law and order for the instability in African countries. Socially, even though the primary aim is the eradication of poverty, the EU development policy goes beyond poverty eradication and political stability. It has continuously shown interest and efforts in aspects such as gender equality and climate change. In 2017 the EU signed a document called the European consensus that was based on the UN 2030 Agenda and the Millennium Sustainable Goals. This is considered a show of strength due to its ability to incorporate matters other than economic and political. In terms of climate change, according to OECD’s data based on Rio’s market methodology, the EU accounted for 59% of the climate finance provided by DAC donors to developing countries in the period of 2010-2016.

Despite the strengths, there has been some criticism about the EU’s development policy. The inability of EDF to be flexible whilst ensuring long-term funding to strengthen development is amongst one of them. The EDF has been criticized for being inflexible once the funds are allocated. Its predictable five-yearly basis funding makes it a challenge for the organization to re-program and respond to emergency crises such as natural disasters. Secondly, the EU has presented the existence of cognitive shifts. By emphasizing a more global developmental approach through the nexus with migration, climate, and security, the development arena is being made comprehensive so far that it is impossible to come up with a clear and coherent view on what the development policy is or should be.

Lastly, EU development policy has been taken captive by migration politics, the focus of aid has lost its meaning in the sense that the aid is increasingly spent on closing borders, reforming migration policies, and pushing migrants to return to their

country of origin. This diverts the main aim of development aid from its true purpose that is helping those in need and eliminating the root causes of migration. This has not only worsened the situation but also hurts the EU’s diplomatic standing and values (Oxfam, 2020).

CHAPTER 4. CASE STUDY: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

4.1 Country Profile

Formerly known as Zaire, The Democratic Republic of the Congo is located at the heart of Africa. It covers about an area of 2,345,000 square meters making it the second-largest country in Africa after Algeria. Nine countries namely, Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia border the DRC. As of 2020, the country’s population was 89,560,567 people with an annual growth of 3.1% (World Bank, 2021). The capital city Kinshasa is located at the Congo River about 515 km from its mouth and serves as the country’s economic, administrative, and cultural center.

Map 4.1. Administrative Map of the DRC.

Source: The map was created with the provincial Shape file obtained from free, open collaborative platform Common geographical reference of the DRC.

The country gained its independence on 30, June 1960 from Belgium authorities. In 1965, Joseph Mobutu Seseseko seized power and ruled the country between 1971- 1997. Under his reign, there was the cancellation of several development programs due to debt that resulted in the increased deterioration of the economy and instability

in the country. In 1993, the Burundian civil war and the Rwandan genocide resulted in a massive inflow of refugees into the DRC hence worsening the situation, as the country was already unstable due to the recurring wars. The recurring wars were a result of the withdrawal of the rich mining province of Katanga between the years 1960 and 1963. The war-affected the country in such a way that up to its end in 2003, the country went through 3 different republics. The first Republic existed from 1960 to 1965 that was characterized by the collapse of the state. The second republic (1965-1997) began as a result of a state coup and the military assumed power under the supreme reign of president Mobutu Seseseko. The third republic (1997-2002) due to the ongoing economic deterioration and the decreasing of people’s living standards, war was inevitable hence to manage the war a coalition of states in the great lakes region was created to stage a massive military operation, the states included Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi.

4.2. Political, Economic and Social situation of DRC

According to World Bank, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country was 48.71 billion US Dollars in 2020; the GNI per capita was 550 US Dollars as of 2020 with 72% of people living under 1.9usd per day. The country managed to reach an economic growth of 5.8% in 2018 but it dropped to 4.4% in 2019 and 3.1% in 2020 due to insurgencies. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is considered a low- income country with a poverty rate of 77.2% (World Bank, 2021) not only due to the effects of war but the mismanagement of funds from the mining sector as well as corruption and abuse of power. The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s economy is a mixed economic system that is, private freedom combined with centralized planning and government regulation. Despite having a clear economic system, the economy is still highly dependent on official development assistance. In 2020 alone, the country received 3,025.5 million US Dollars in net ODA (World Bank, 2021).

The country associates itself with different regional organizations for economic prospects and is a member of regional economic organizations such as Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), and The Southern African Development Community (SADC).

executive, judicial and legislative powers. Despite going through an election in December 2018, the nature and quality of the elections are still questionable. The election also spiked violence in Kivu areas and Ituri province, which were already struggling with an insurgency. According to the Compagnie Francaise d’Assurance pour le Commerce Exterieur’s (COFACE) report of 2020², the DRC received a rating of “D” which means high risk of the political situation with poor governance and bad electoral process despite achieving a peaceful transition in 60 years.

Socially, the DRC still suffers from inadequate access to social services such as education and proper health care. The unemployment rate increases annually. In 2019 the unemployment rate was at 4.1% and it increased to 4.6% in 2020 (ILO, 2021). The country’s life expectancy is 61 years as of 2020 but its human capital is still poor with a score of 0.37% below the average sub-Saharan Africa score, making the country’s ranking 137 out of 157 in terms of human capital. The weak infrastructure in the country makes it difficult for people to access immediate health care. 43% of the children in DRC are malnourished and more lives have been claimed due to the outburst of the Ebola epidemic and Coronavirus pandemic.

Access to proper education is still a challenge. According to the UNESCO (2019), the DRC has a 77% literacy rate, only 46% of secondary school enrollment, and the average number of years spent in school is 9.2 years.

The economic activities in the DRC weakened as a result of COVID-19 which has led to the reduction of international reserves Furthermore, the inflation has increased to 11.3% (World Bank, 2020) and the Congolese currency (Congolese Franc) decrepitated by 13% in More specifically, on the private sector, consumption fell by 1.0% and 10.3% in government investments during 2020 (World Bank, 2020). The fiscal deficit also widened by 0.7% to 1.9% of the GDP due to government’s response to the pandemic The pandemic not only affected the economy of the country but the individuals as well. During the pandemic period, poverty in DRC as

2 The COFACE country risk assessment aims at evaluating the average credit risk of companies in a given country. The evaluation is based on economic, financial, and political data. But it also takes into account COFACE'S experience in the country, under two dimensions: Colace’s payment experience on the companies of the country and also its assessment of the business climate.

of last year it was estimated to be 77% an increase of 0.7% from 2019. Together with the deterioration of living conditions unemployment has also increased. As reported by COVID-19 high frequency Phone surveys in Kinshasa, over 10% of households have experienced their relatives lose jobs while 20% have had to reduce their food consumption (World Bank, 2020).

Source: OECD, 2020

Figure 4.1.Net Official Development Assistance received (Current US Dollars) - Congo, Dem. Rep.

Source: author’s own contribution sourced from OECD and World Bank reports.

Figure 1.2.Top Aid Donors in the DRC

4.3. Migration Profile of the DRC

International migration in the DRC is a complex phenomenon as it is characterized by diversification of destination countries together with variety of types of migration such as asylum seekers, students, workers, irregular migration (Ness, 2013).

Congolese migration within Africa is mostly dominated by push factors due to the never-ending political instability, economic crisis and poverty in the DRC as well as the outburst of the Ebola epidemic. As a result, numerous of the neighboring countries host huge numbers of refugees from the DRC; over 918,000 Congolese refugees and asylum seekers are in the neighboring countries including Rwanda, Burundi, The Central African Republic, and South Sudan (UNHCR, 2020.) The Congolese migration towards other African countries is characterized by having a 50% population of women and children who flee from sexual abuse and has left

economic reasons end up in Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, and Angola working in different informal sectors. With the facilitation of the governments' immigration policies of these countries, Congolese people crossed the border and settled in these neighboring countries.

Migration from African to Europe became popular in the 1950’s, accordingly, migration from the DRC to European countries became popular around the same time 1960s and 1970s. This came as a result of the DRC independence and the main destination was Belgium due to the colonial ties (Schoonvaere, 2010). The profile of Congolese migrants consists of irregular migration, asylum seekers and displaced persons (IOM, 2019). These categories of migrants suggest the economic and political instability of the country (Mangalu, 2010). When discussing and analyzing the characteristics of Congolese migrants to Europe, it goes beyond just the contextual factors to include the role played by family and individual factors (MAFE, 2013). In a Congolese household, it is not uncommon for elders to obtain huge loans to pay for taking their children out of the country and sent to Europe since migration is seen as an opportunity to amass more income (Ngoie Tshibambe, 2008).

Furthermore, the role of family is also witnessed indirectly since Congolese migrate to countries where they have families and networks existing (Schnoovaere, 2010).

According to EU statistics of 2019, family reunification accounts for about 35.5% of the reason why Congolese migrants migrate to Europe (Eurostat, 2019).

Statistically, the main reasons for the DRC to EU migration can be categorized into two, contextual factors and individual factors. Contextual factors include political, economic, social and environmental whereas individual factors include family reunification, remunerated activities and other uncategorized reasons (European Union, 2019). As mentioned earlier, the reasons for the DRC to migrate in certain European countries and not others are motivated by language factor as well as colonial ties. In a period of 5 years (2014-2019), it was recorded that a high number of Congolese migrants concentrated in France, Belgium and Sweden with 55.4%, 14.3% and 10.8% of total number of migrants in EU respectively. However, majority of asylum seekers tend to settle in the point of first entry in this case Greece, which recorded 16.1% of asylum seekers (European Union, 2019).

Although this thesis does not focus on asylum flows from the DRC, it is important to note that due to political instability and civil war, the number of refugees and asylum seekers from the DRC keep increasing over time. According to recent statistics by

UNDESA (2020), more than 900,000 Congolese refugees and asylum seekers are hosted in other countries in 2020 alone. According to UNHCR (2020), there were over five million displaced persons due to conflict and violence as of December 2020 in DRC. Some of the drivers and events that led to the increase of these numbers include the political instability fueled by the Rwandan genocide in 1994 that escalated to a full war in 1996. Although there was an establishment of a transitional government in 2003, some areas in the DRC remained unstable, especially the eastern provinces. Another reason for this high number of forced migrants is natural disaster and a non-stop humanitarian crisis. In 2020 alone, some of the 26 provinces were affected by heavy rains and floods, doubled with the Ebola epidemic and COVID19 pandemic this has left the country weak and leading to an increase of about 20% migration and displaced persons (UNICEF, 2020).

The DRC is one of the most populated countries in the sub-Saharan Africa, with a high rate of annual population increase. Additionally, migration is affected because the change in demographics determines how people move. One of the characteristics of push factors for migration is that the population that tends to migrate is the working class and this is because population does cause an increase in demand for services and scarcity of employment opportunities. If these factors are not favorable the group that is likely to migrate in search for favorable conditions is the working class. According to UNDP (2020), the percentage of the working class in the DRC is 44.2% of the total population that shows high number of youths searching for better economic conditions. With the country’s fragile economic situation, this drives more youths to migrate.